First Set of Casts

Today we went to the Starship Children's Hospital in Auckland. Last Tuesday 5/24/2011 we went to an appointment with a family doctor and he referred us to the Orthopedic Specialist Dr. Stuart Welsh who we found online from the referral of the doctor in Hawaii. Our appointment was amazing. When we got there we meet nurse Mel. She is so lovely. She went over a lot of what we went over with the doctor in Hawaii about the Ponseti method. She was impressed that Joe and I had done a lot of research about the Ponseti method and had also read other peoples blogs about their experiences. After she and Dr. Welsh had looked at his feet they told us that he didn't have severe club foot but instead had a good mild case. On a rating scale with 6 being the worst little Joe scored mostly 1/2 to 1's. I was grateful that Joe and I had been stretching his feet from his birth. Then nurse Mel told us that she would be back with the physiotherapist Katie to cast his feet. I did not expect them to be doing the casting the same day but I was happy to get it started. Little Joe was amazing while they put the casts on, he didn't scream or anything.

Little Joes feet before the casts are put on. Look at how chunky his thighs are!

Holding his little feet in preparation for the cast being put on. My mum got to hold onto his other foot while they did his right foot.

A photo of my little boy with the first cast almost done on his right foot.

 

The right foot cast!

The first cast is finished. Yes it a big cast. He has to leave them on for a week and then they take them off and put them on again in the same day. This will happen each Wednesday for the next 6 weeks.